The others are Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Puerto Rico also has a diabetes rate greater than 10 percent.

Mississippi -- the state with the largest proportion of residents who are obese -- has the highest diabetes rate. Nearly 12 percent of Mississippians say they have diabetes, compared to the national average of 7 percent, the Associated Press reported.

"But the most dramatic increases in diabetes occurred largely elsewhere in the South and in the Southwest, where rates tripled or more than doubled. Oklahoma's rate rose to about 10 percent, Kentucky went to more than 9 percent, Georgia to 10 percent and Alabama surpassed 11 percent," the AP report continued.

Alabama saw a 140 percent increase in diabetes diagnoses among adults between 1995 and 2010, going from a diabetes rate of 4.7 percent in 1995 to 11.3 percent in 2010. Overall, the United States saw an 82.2 percent increase in that time.

Alabama was one of 18 states to see an increase of greater than 100 percent in that time.

In 1995, only three states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico had diabetes rates greater than 6 percent, but by 2010 it was greater than 6 percent in every state, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico.

Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Vermont, and Wyoming were the only states with diabetes rates below 7 percent.